Wiper drain tray rust

[gudtimer41]

While taking advantage of winter to do some ignored work I lifted the body piece with the wipers attached and found a fair amount of peeled paint, rusted heater flap and a bit of rust on the tray. Checking the area closely I found that of the two drains for the tray, one was installed too high to effectively remove any trapped water, and hence the rust on one side.. Taking my trusty dremel tool, I notched the drain to an appropriate height that should solve future problems. Too much wine for lunch at the factory, I bet.

[124JOE]

be sure to paint all exposed metal

[jimmycakes401]

I'm doing the exact same thing right now. Let me know what you use and how it turns out. Pictures would be great. What materials are you using to stop the rust? Are you going to pull off the heater flap and fix it?

[gudtimer41]

I took a power wire brush and thoroughly sanded the rust off. Then I used a black cutting wheel on a drill and removed any loose or cracked undercoating type stuff. There is contrete latex based crack sealer that I used on my garage floor that worked really well there, so I used it to fill in any cracks on the tray (no rust throughs there), as well as to build up the low spots. Notched the drain and then primered and painted. Actually I have so many cans of leftove spray paint that I just took a can of gloss and gave the tray a couple of coats to seal it. Should work. Re the flap, I just sanded, primered and painted, replacing the foam seal (I trimmed weather stripping for that) and made sure that the hinge was well-lubricated. Good time to clean all of the gunk off the wiper articulating points and relube with something besides WD40 (tends to dry out and get sticky) and replace those hardened windshield washers hoses as well. What started out to be a simple look-see became a lot more ambitious project, but it seems to be so every time you take off a cover on the Spider. Be worth it when you drive in the first rain, though.